Monday 20 February 2017 02:17 PM
Westpac wrong to release 'Dirty Politics' author Hager's bank records: Privacy Commissioner
By Pattrick Smellie
Feb. 20 (BusinessDesk) - The Privacy Commissioner has censured Westpac Banking Corp for releasing without a court order
more than 10 months of bank records belonging to the political activist and journalist Nicky Hager during a police
investigation into leaked information published in Hager's 2014 pre-election book, 'Dirty Politics'.
In a decision released today, commissioner John Edwards also takes issue with Westpac's suggestion during his
investigation into the release that the bank appears to believe "that every customer has authorised the disclosure of
all of their information from each of their accounts to police for whatever reason police give, without recourse to
production of orders or other authorities".
"I simply cannot accept that is a well-founded belief," said Edwards in a three-page decision that stopped short of
sending Hager's complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal, in part because Westpac said it had subsequently changed its
policy. "As a general proposition, it seems untenable that Westpac would genuinely hold this belief. I am sure it would
come as a surprise to Westpac's customers that this were so."
He did not agree that, by accepting Westpac's terms and conditions, Hager had "authorised such disclosure".
Westpac had argued that its standard terms and conditions allowed the release of information to the police, which
occurred under an understanding that it and other banks had that allowed the release of information without a formal
court order where the police said they were investigating fraud.
In a statement coinciding with the decision, Hager said the decision was important for the light it might shed on
apparently widespread informal requests for private records from private companies by government agencies and noting the
Westpac information release, without need for a warrant where a fraud investigation was under way, was "an agreement
that the police had reached with all New Zealand banks".
The police had "falsely" claimed to Westpac that it was conducting a fraud investigation.
Dirty Politics included a large amount of material that was politically damaging to the National Party-led government
shortly before the Sept. 20, 2014, general election, sourced from an anonymous informant known only as 'Rawshark', whose
identity has never been revealed.
Hager only became aware of the Westpac release to the police under court discovery rules.
(BusinessDesk)